Everything From the Life of a Part-Time Sofa Spud

Today’s Assignment: Write a post based on the contrast between two things — whether people, objects, emotions, places, or something else.

Today’s twist: write your post in the form of a dialogue.

3am, on a rainy summer night, Abeeha walked towards her bed like a zombie – neck tilted, mouth hanging open, feet dragging and all – let herself fall on the bed and went into a deep sleep before her head even hit the pillow. Five minutes later, out of nowhere, Worky (the part of her who drives her to work hard) and Funky (the part of her that lets her have fun) appeared beside her.

Worky, always with the smug look on his face, looked down at her and frowned.

“Do we have to listen to her snore every single godforsaken night?”

“Oh come on, chill bro. She’s had a long day,” Funky replied. “And I like the way she snores. She looks so at peace, sweet child of mine.”

“She looks like a moron and sounds like a 100 year old tractor plowing a field of rocks.”

Funky chuckled and said, “You need to relax, dude. When was the last time you ever jammed to a song, eh?”

“I don’t jam. I’m with her for a purpose. She needs me because I’m the one who’s….”

Funky cut him off, “Coz I’m all about that bass, ‘bout that bass, no treble.” doing his best Meghan Trainor impression.

“She hates that song, you halfwit.” Worky snapped.

“But it’s been stuck in her head all day! I’m all about that bass, ‘bout that bass… bass… bass…”

Worky took a deep breath and calmed himself down. “I’m going to ignore that. As I was saying, I’m the one who’s keeping her ambitious, making her do something productive out of her life. All you do is make her sit on her ass and watch shitty shows on her laptop.”

“Don’t you dare call Outlandera shitty show!” Funky shouted. “She adores it. It’s in her Top-5-TV-shows-of-all-time list now.” He continued with a calm voice. “And I love it too, mostly ‘cause of Caitriona Balfe. I mean, check her out dude. I’d totally tap that… That reminds me, I’ll ask Abeeha to Google her in the morning for me.”

“You have an attention span of a monkey. No, actually, even monkeys are better than you.”

Worky stood up and started to walk around the room. “Why don’t you understand that because of me she’s finally content with her life! She doesn’t need Outlander or Game of Thrones to make her happy.”

“Oh come on man, lighten up! And trust me, Jon Snow makes her plenty happy. By the way, do you call that,” pointed to Abeeha, “a person who’s content with her life? She looked like she was fudging dying, dude. She’s getting weak, doesn’t get enough rest, she barely laughs, and doesn’t get to spend time with her family. THAT was what made her happy. Not working her ass off like it’s her last day on Earth and God won’t let her enter Heaven until she learns how to develop a website or what strategy is best for her business project.”

Worky stood in his place, took a sullen glance at Abeeha and replied in a low voice.

“I just want what’s best for her.”

Funky got off the bed and walked towards him. “I know, dude. But you know she misses her family. You gotta be a little soft on her. She misses sharing stuff with her Mom, joking around with her Bro and hanging out with her Dad. You know, there’s no use in living your dreams when all your loved ones aren’t there with you.”

Worky sat down on the edge of the bed and took some time before he replied, “I know. I just wanted her to thrive. But I’ll give her some time off now and then so she can balance her work and personal life. She deserves some rest; otherwise she might regret it later.”

Worky stared back at him with a blank look and sighed. “Oh for Heaven’s sake. Fine… Only know you love her when you let her go.”

“… And you let her go. Bum pa da da da pum ba da da pum pum.” Funky held Worky’s hands, pulled him up and started dancing a duet.

Worky felt embarrassed, “What. An. Idiot.”

But inside, he too was smiling.

Oh I feel so embarrassed right now! After my previous serious and “inspirational” posts this must seem like a joke 😀 But this is the best I could come up within 10 minutes (couldn’t find much time ‘coz I’m stuck in 4 university projects and a huge pile of other work). And haha, yes these two really are a part of me, but I don’t actually call them Worky and Funky 😛 That’s lame beyond comprehension 😀 Well, at least with this assignment I got to practice on dialogue writing which was one of my biggest weaknesses. I am terrible at it.

Anyway, as for the backstory: most days I AM actually that busy as shown in the conversation; my blog’s tagline says I’m a part time sofa-spud but nowadays I’ve resigned from the sofa-spud part for a while, because I’ve got my hands full with sh*t load of work. I do try to spend some quality time with my family but most times it does happen that I’m locked inside my room all day working continuously until my body collapses and I’m driven to the edge of madness. But I miss my family so much, and they miss me terribly too 😦 So before I go clinically insane, I’ll try to let Funky take charge every once in a while. (I hope I won’t actually start calling it “Funky”)

The point is: wherever you are, in whatever profession, please try to take out some time and spend it far away from your work/study and devote yourself fully to your loved ones and having fun, or just go out and unwind a little bit.

Trust me, I used to be very, very bad at dialogues.. As in “C grade” bad.. 😀 But I’m so glad I got to overcome my fears of writing dialogues after this assignment ^_^ Thanks so much for the encouragement!!! ❤

The reasons for your backstory are quite obvious, your own admission: “I’ve got my hands full with sh*t load of work.” And that’s more than enough to drive you to the edge of madness, your own words again. However, your advice to others in a similar situation: “devote yourself fully to your loved ones and having fun …”, is just wonderful.

Likewise, your declaration: “I do try to spend some quality time with my family …”, is made possible due to the cooperation of your admirable characters, Worky and Funky, and without their support, you wouldn’t have been able to balance your work and personal life!

Well, in any case, you get full marks for your ‘dialogue writing’ – well done!:)

Oh my God, I’m simply overwhelmed by your genuinely kind feedback ❤ Thank you SO much Mike! 🙂
And yes, at the end of the dialogue I've tried to show the same that it's only when they both work together and understand each other's importance, only then they can help develop a healthy mental state for me where I'm not only focusing on my job but also on the more important aspect of my life: my family 🙂
And yay I got full marks 😀 Heehee thank you so much!! You have no idea how much this means to me ❤

Hahaha thanks so muchhh!! We all have a very cool fun side 😀 We just gotta let him in the drivers seat once in a while 😉 And I’m so glad you liked that part of me 😀 Hehe ❤
P.S. Let Her Go really is such an awesome song 😉

Wow, I so wish I’d thought of doing something like this! 🙂 Love, love, love this piece. Funky Mahmood seems like an interesting person to be around! 😛

And I love how you used that song “Let Her Go” so effectively. It hits hard when Worky sings that last line! Great job, girl! There’s an amazing writer in you. Let me know when you publish your novel 😀

Hahahahaha Udayyy!! Me, a novel writer? There’s this thing we call, it’s called “buttering” 😛 Don’t do that because I tend to take it seriously and shoot myself up to Cloud 9 😀
And yess Funky Mahmood really is a cool person to hang out with 😛 But I don’t show this side of me to many people (only reserved for the ones close to me) so for this assignment I thought why not give you guys a glimpse of my silly side coz you are practically family to me 😉 🙂
Thanks so much for the praise 😀

Awwwwww! That’s so sweet of you! (note to self: be wary of sounding like a teenage girl)

And, trust me dear, I rarely “butter”! People around me know that a bit too well. 🙂 I did genuinely feel that you could become a good writer. Are you telling me you’ve never thought of it? Come on. Even if you didn’t till now, you totally should! Because you’re very good!!

I did think of it many years ago 😛 I wanted to be a writer since I started reading fiction (age 5) But life took me into a different direction as I grew up so I stopped thinking about it and took writing as a hobby 😦
P.S. You didn’t sound like a teenage girl when you said awwww 😀